Caution: Stripping, Hooking and Binding ahead!

Well, today I was thinking of my Grandmother. ACtually, that’s not exactly true. I think of her many days but today especially more. She was the greatest cook I’ve ever known. Especially the Acadian dishes like Poutines Râpées, Chiard and what I’m making today, Poutines au Trou.

I remember Nan making these once, but she said that Meme used to make them all the time. I use her biscuit dough recipe as the pastry and then had to improvise the how to by searching online.

2 cups buttermilk (equals 2 Tbsp lemon juice and enough milk to make 2 cups)
Sift dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until crumbly (use a pastry blender). Stir in buttermilk and egg to make a soft dough. Stir lightly, or the pastry will be tough.

Apple filling: about 10 very large apples (peeled, cored and sliced thinly)

½ cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

You can precook the apple mixture until thickened but this step is not necessary. Make sure to cool it before putting it on the pastry.

Roll out dough and cut largish circles out. I end up rolling these circles a bit larger to be about 5 inches in diameter. Place some apple mixture on each circle. Moisten the edges with a bit of water and a pastry brush. Fold over apples, pinching gently to sell. Put folded edge face down on greased cookie sheet. Take a pair of scissors and cut a small circle in the top side of each poutine. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes, or until golden.

There is a bit of discrepancy with this recipe. The Poutines my grandmother made were with the cut up apples, but my Mom said she remembers her Grandmother using a whole apple for them. So I made most of them with the sliced apples, and only two with whole apples. I just peeled and cored the apples, placed each on the rolled out pastry and inserted a bit of sugar and cinnamon. I then moistened the edges of the pastry and wrapped it around the apple.

These took a bit longer to bake, probably 20-30 minutes.

Note: what are the best baking apples? This is a personal choice. MacIntosh are great for apple sauce as they break down very easily. Cortlands are a good all purpose apple and, in my humble opinion, the best eating apple on this earth. Gravestein are very good for pies as they are nice and tart, hard and hold their shape well. I used a mixture of Cortland and Spartan apples for my poutines au trou today, as this is what I had in my fridge : )